RESEARCH METHOD
By
Abuzar Asra
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SESSION 5
STEP 6: ELEMENTS OF RESEARCH DESIGN
(Chapter 6 of Sekaran, 2000; Selltiz, 1976)
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ISSUES IN RESEARCH DESIGN





Purpose for the study
Type of study/investigation
Extent of researcher interference
Unit of analysis
Time horizon
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KINDS OF RESEARCH (1)
(Sekaran, 2000 and Johnston, 1986)
•
Basic/fundamental/pure research:
chiefly to enhance the understanding of
certain problems and seek methods of solving
them (i.e contribute to knowledge building in a
certain area),
similar to
- Disciplinary research
to improve a discipline, such as economics
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KINDS OF RESEARCH (2)
(Sekaran, 2000 and Johnston, 1986)
Applied research:
•
applying the results of the findings to solve specific problems currently
being faced,
similar to,
- Subject-Matter:
 multidisciplinary research on a subject of interest to a set of decision
makers facing a set of practical problems
or
- Problem-solving:
To solve a specific problem for a specific decision makers
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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY (1)
(Selltiz, et al., 2000; Chapter 6 of Sekaran, 2000 )
Types of study, according to the purpose of the study and
related to the stage to which knowledge about the research
topic has advanced:
•
Exploratory or Formulative
•
Descriptive
•
Analytical
(Hypothesis testing, Explanatory, Validation, Predictive )
•
Case Study
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EXPLORATORY (1)
Objectives:
To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to
achieve new insights into it, help formulating a
more precise research problem or to develop
hypotheses
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EXPLORATORY (2)
Other Objectives:
(i)
increasing investigators’ familiarity with the phenomenon to be
studied further
(ii)
clarifying concepts
(iii)
establishing priorities for further research
(iv)
gathering information about practical possibilites for carrying out
research in real-life setting
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EXPLORATORY (3)
Methods:

a review of the related science and literature

experience survey:
a survey of people who had practical experience
with the problem studied (individually or focus
groups), and

an analysis of ‘insighting-stimulating’ examples
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EXPLORATORY (4)

A review of the related science and literature
The focus:
hypotheses that may serve as leads for further
investigation
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EXPLORATORY (5)

The experience survey:
a survey of people who had practical experience with the
problem studied (individually or focus groups)
Issues:
-Selection of respondents
- The question of respondents
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EXPLORATORY (6)

The analysis of ‘insighting-stimulating’
examples
An intensive study of selected selected examples, a
fruitful method for stimulating insights and suggesting
hypotheses for research
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Exploratory (7)
Example:
•
A manager, curious to know, work ethic values,
employees, certain ethnic groups, different from that of
others.
Work ethic values?
•
Quality of life, what does it mean?
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DESCRIPTIVE (1)
Objective:
to portray and understand accurately the characteristics of a particular
individual, situation, or group or of the variables of interest in a
situation
In sum, help to:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
understand the characteristics of a group in a given situation,
think systematically about aspects in a given situation,
offer ideas for further probe and research, and
help make certain simple decisions
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DESCRIPTIVE (2)
Steps:
•Formulating the objectives
•Designing methods of data collection
•Selecting the sample
•Collecting and checking the data
•Analyzing the results
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DESCRIPTIVE (3)
Example:
A profile of the clients having loan payment outstanding for six
months and more.
Characteristics:
•
•
•
•
•
Average age
Sex
Earnings
Type of occupation
Employment status
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HYPOTHESIS TESTING/ANALYTICAL
Objective:
•Test a hypothesis or explain the nature of e.g., relationship
between variables and the differences among groups
•Develop new theories or use the existing theories to account for
observations
• Validating and replicating existing research and theory. Using
different samples, populations, research methods
• Prediction: ascertain the extent to which observations of .....
agree with what the theory specifies.
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EXAMPLES
•
Sales, increases, if advertisement doubles?
•
Is working night shift related to marital status?
•
Is education associated with the adoption of
family planning program?
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CASE STUDY
In depth, contextual analysis
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TYPE OF INVESTIGATION
•
Causal
- To establish a definitive cause and effect relationship
- To delineate the cause of one or more problems
- E.g., Does smoking cause cancer?
•
Correlational
- To delineate the important variables that are
associated with the problems
- E.g., Are smoking and cancer related?
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EXTENT OF RESEARCHER INTERFERENCE WITH THE STUDY
Depend on
-whether the study is correlational or causal
- the importance of establishing causal relationship beyond any
doubt whatever
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EXTENT OF RESEARCHER INTERFERENCE WITH THE STUDY
Correlational study: in the natural environment, e.g.,
the study the factors influencing training effectiveness;
develop a theoretical framework, collect the relevant
data, and analyse them to come up with the findings
Causal study: manipulate certain variables so as to
study the effects of such manipulation on the
dependent variable of interest (and tightly controll
certain other variables, as in a laboratory) – artificial lab
setting
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STUDY SETTING



Noncontrived:
‘normal condition’ (minimal interference), such as
correlational/field studies
Contrived/Artificial:
 causal studies (moderate interference) and
 lab experiments (excessive interference)
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AN EXAMPLE (1)
•
Correlational study, in some cases is called field
study: noncontrived setting with minimal
interference
- Emotional support in the system and the stress experienced
by the nursing staff (say, using a questionnaire)
-Collect data on how much emotional support they get and to
what extent they experience stress, and
-Then correlate the 2 variables.
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AN EXAMPLE (2)
•
Causal study, in some cases is called field
experiment: noncontrived setting with moderate
interference
-Having emotional support does indeed cause the nurses to
experience less stress
- Experiment, 3 wards, before and after ‘treatment’ (emotional
support)
- Before: measure the stress currently experienced in the 3
wards
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AN EXAMPLE (3)
- Deliberately manipulate the extent of emotional support given
to the three groups of nurses, say for a week, say 3 levels: extensive support; moderate support; no support
-After: measure the amount of stress at the end of the period
- If the theory is correct, the difference in the stress levels
before and after the one-week period should be greatest in the
first ward, moderate in the second and nil for in the third
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AN EXAMPLE (4)
•
Lab experiment:
contrived setting
Excessive
interference,
a
-Create an artificial environment, close to laboratory setting
- Say, connection between interest rate and savings
- Recruits 40 students, business majors in the final year, same
age
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AN EXAMPLE (5)
-Split into 4 groups, give them chips that count for $1,000 for
spending, saving, or both
- Manipulate the interest rates by offerring a 1% interest on
savings for group 1; 6% group 2; 8% group 3; and 9% group 4.
- Do students who are offerred more interest are inclined to
sava more?
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UNIT OF ANALYSIS (1)
•Level of aggregation of the data collected during the
subsequent data analyis stage
-Individual : e.g. Employees
- Dyads : e.g. Husband-wife; supervisor-supervisee, as unit of
analysis
- Group: e.g. to study group effectiveness
- Organization, etc etc etc
Data collection methods, sample size, the variables included in the
framework are determined by the level at which data are
aggregated for analyis
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UNIT OF ANALYSIS (2)
Examples:
•
Individual:
how many interested in joining the demonstration
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Dyad:
what jointly mother and daughter perceive benefits of the program
•
Group:
Group of production, sales and operation personnells on using the new IT
system
•
Division:
profit of each of divisions (soap, paper, oil, etc)
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TIME HORIZON (1)
(i) Cross-sectional studies
Data are gathered just once (at one point in time), perhaps
over a period of days or weeks, across unit of observation.
Example:
A number of female students were interviewed in March 2010
regarding the brand of hair shampo used and ethnci
background
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TIME HORIZON (2)
(ii)
Longitudinal/Time-Series studies
To study people or phenomena (unit of observation) at more than
one point in time
(1) Prospective /cohort/forward looking study
(1) Retrospective /trohoc/’backward looking’/case history study:
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TIME HORIZON (3)
Example:
Employees’ behavior before and after a change in
the top management,
to study the effects of the change
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TIME HORIZON (4)
Cause
Outcome
Prospective:
- Smokers
- Non-smokers
Retrospective:
• With disease
• Without disease
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TIME HORIZON (5)
(iii) Studies using pooled cross-section and
time-series data
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Exercises
Exercises 6.1 and 6.2 of Sekaran, 2000
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